A History of English Dictionaries
The beginnings of English dictionaries date from 1604 when the first 'hard-word dictionary' was published. it contained fewer than 3,000 difficult words, which were explained by easier ones. An important principle was introduced: that of listing words in alphabetical order (A-Z).
the first major dictionary was the Universal Etymological English Dictionary by Nathaniel Bailay, which was published in 1721. (Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words and their meanings.) This one volume contained about 40,000 word